AuthorTopic: Steve Michael Woods - TX - 09/13/2011 (Read 34036 times)

One of the antis' tricks is to shame the pros with semantical mind games. Their favorite: execution is a legalized murder. This revelation is supposed make the earth shake under the Texans' boots.

While creating this oxymoron - legalized murder- they overlooked, or at least do not want to admit, that a state can do a couple of other nasty things we are not allowed to do to each other. Like for example:

Woods murdered 3 people - 2 in Texas and 1 in CaliforniaAgain, the jury found that Woods was the shooter in the murders of Ron and Bethena. I can't make it any clearer for you. Both Woods and Rhodes are equally legally and morally guilty of the murderers no matter who pulled the trigger. However, under Texas law a jury is asked to determine whether the defendant is or is not the principal (shooter). If not the principal, it can be considered as mitigation. The jury found that Woods - not Rhodes was the shooter. Therefore, when Rhodes was set to go to trial, he was offered and accepted a plea deal based on the fact that he cooperated and was not the principal. He won't be eligibe for parole until he's in his 80s or 90s. The families of the victims were okay with this.

I'm really really sorry to annoy you. I'm not debating you & appreciate your willingness to explain all of this to me. What you just cited were the appeals. I mentioned how I had read those today. Yes they are legal docs, but they do not show the evidence presented against Woods and they do not show the proceedings during the actual sentence. I was looking for transcripts that indicate that Rhodes wasn't guilty, not appeals that argue the legitimacy of court procedures. I hope I am clear about the fact that I'm talking about this because the more I read, the more I think "I can't believe they didn't choose to execute that piece of human trash [rhodes]". Some points you may want to consider:

1) You wrote that Woods murdered 1 person in CA. While Woods was not charged with murder in California -- Rhodes was.[If you read the Woods appeals you will see that Rhodes, along with Matthew Potts and Jeremy Starks, shot a man in California. Potts and Starks were dubbed the shooters, the murder weapons were the same ones from the Denton/Colony murder and they were registered to Rhodes. Potts and Starks testified that Woods was not at the murder scene.]Dallas Morning News:"Joan Sanders, Mr. Sanders' mother, said she was surprised Mr. Rhodesdecided to plead guilty."Mr. Rhodes will be transferred to prison in Huntsville and thenextradited to San Bernardino, Calif., where he plans to plead guilty to1st-degree murder in the March 2001 shooting death of Beau Sanders, 21,of Dallas, District Attorney Bruce Isaacks said.I didn't even dream that he would do that," she said.The mother, who buried her son in February after enduring 9 months notknowing if he was dead or alive, said life in prison is not enough."He took Beau's life, and I think his life should be taken," she said."Mr. Sanders was a manager at a Deep Ellum coffee shop that was frequentedby Mr. Rhodes and Mr. Woods. Two months before The Colony slayings, Mr.Rhodes and 2 other men drove Mr. Sanders to the desert in San BernardinoCounty, shot him, and left him for dead, police have said.They killed him because he fired one of them for stealing money from thecoffee shop, police said."

2) You said that Rhodes got life plus 25.If he had an an actual sentence & plead guilty to murder, he could have gotten 25 to life. That didn't happen -- Rhodes got 15 years in CA. He plead guilty as an ACCESSORY through yet another PLEA DEAL. So, it looks like he has a pattern, right? 'Kill someone, throw friends in the mix, make sure they get tried first so in order to get a plea bargain as an accessory. I wouldn't be so comfortable with the current situation as it is, seeing as, It's possible that Rhodes will be free in 45 or so years, maybe less. I don't know how CA parole goes, but here in Texas you have to serve half of your sentence to be eligible.

3) Look at the Woods vs Quarterman appeal (press control+f and type in "shooting them" for the reference)"At the guilt-determination phase of Woods's trial, the prosecution argued that although Marcus Rhodes participated in the murders, and supplied the car and the guns, Woods planned the crime and did the fatal shootings. Later, Rhodes pled guilty to capital murder and received a life sentence. In Rhodes's sentencing proceedings, he stipulated that he intentionally or knowingly caused the death of Whitehead and Brosz by shooting them with a firearm."So in my attempts to disprove euro-row-ho's, I got confirmation from the Court's published opinion that Rhodes indeed shot and killed both victims, and that according to these appeals, there is no physical evidence against Woods.

4) How you can make it clearer? Explain, with citations: -How Rhode's fingerprints were on the guns, the guns were registered to Rhodes, the guns were found in his parents house, evidence was found in Rhode's car and Woods is supposed to be the shooter. -Why the belongings were in Rhode's car, if Woods was the one who wanted their money. -What was in it for Rhodes, if Woods was fiending for cash. -Why they weren't sentenced together if they were sentenced under LOP for the same offense?

treat my questions above as rhetorical questions. I am merely pointing out that something here doesn't sound right, and Rhodes got off the hook for killing 3 beautiful people, whose loved ones were cheated and deserve more. I have a sneaking suspicion that no one reads about these cases before rejoicing about the results. I really hope that people honor the victims enough to take time to learn about their stories.

I am 100% for capital punishment as a method of giving murder/rape victims & their families justice/respect. So, If we want to keep CP around, we must apply it with proper knowledge of the situation. If disproved, cases like this can make people like US, the people who seek justice, look like don't care. Tree hugging libs are using a case much like this to abolish the DP in California ( http://www.lairdcarlson.com/grip/Thompson%20Case%20Summary.htm ) and we need to show those idiots that this cannot ever happen in Texas.

FireEngineRed wrote: Tree hugging libs are using a case much like this to abolish the DP in California.

They also use the method of evolution or morphing the dp into a de facto LWOP. California is a prime example how it's done: Just have one execution every 20 years.

There is a method to this madness: instead of the death penalty, offer the guy LWOP under the condition he will not appeal and you can hire 10 government parasites - sorry, "workers" - for the money saved.

IF the liberals have their way and the death penalty is abolished, they will next seek to abolish life without parole then after that they will go after life with parole and keep going on murderers can't be punished at all

Logged

My reason for supporting the death penalty? A murderer has less of a right to live than his victim and already presents a danger while incarcerated for life. They have nothing to lose when the most they can get is Life in prison without parole.

FireEngineRed wrote: Tree hugging libs are using a case much like this to abolish the DP in California.

They also use the method of evolution or morphing the dp into a de facto LWOP. California is a prime example how it's done: Just have one execution every 20 years.

There is a method to this madness: instead of the death penalty, offer the guy LWOP under the condition he will not appeal and you can hire 10 government parasites - sorry, "workers" - for the money saved.

In TX, these assholes get like 3 state appeals and one USSC appeal. Murderers take full advantage of all their appeals even if it's useless. That punk Stroman is a great example for how stupid this is- i mean, the dude was caught on tape. If you know he's guilty, that's it, prep the gurney send him on his way immediately IMHO.

If they want to give murderers appeals, they should at least make these fools work in order to pay an appellate attorney. So if they don't work, they die, simple as that. Meantime we're working for em.

Gregg Fisher

There ya go, FER. jeffieb is the one stop shop for all your legal mis-information needs. He's famous for it. I can't wait to see what kind of crap you two can makeup. No doubt it will rival that of the great legal minds on deathrow news.

Gregg Fisher

And that is the extent of your knowledge on the death penalty and this case specifically. People actually, or use to come here, for information on cases - not to spread mis-information or start flame wars. But you really don't have the intelligence to do anything else, jeff. You're the pro-version of a scumpal.

I just cited e v e r y t h i n g i mentioned. Gregg made stuff up without citing sources and by some means of tragic magic it makes *me* legally misinformed.Glad you're just as legally misinformed. We can only aspire to the greatness and precision of Gregg's totally objective legal info.

We're all on the same team and you're fighting the wrong people. Wanna call people dumbasses? Go to the prisoner forums. Why are you being rude to people who are totally respectful..? I seriously don't get it.

My knowledge of the law? I used to volunteer at UT law dept. for mock trials when I was in school, for extra credit...I just told you I read through all four appeals on saturday and before that I told you I read all of Bethena's memorial site. There's a ton of info there.I also talked about another prisoner's case on that page.. I know specifics there too, because againt I READ- Sorry I try my best to know what I'm talking about.